Collective Redress in EU: Can Pitfalls of US Class Actions Be Avoided? At What Cost?

Abstract

The article discusses the introduction of collective redress in the EU, with special emphasis on the comparison to the US class action suits in the field of competition law. After briefly overviewing EU’s approach to implementing collective redressing and a description of the history and nature of the class action suits, the article stresses the agency costs that arise in class action suits as the main inefficiency of class action suits and discusses ways to decrease the agency costs in class actions. It concludes with the overview of Slovenian legislation pertaining to the collective redress and the recommendations for the EU’s implementation of the collective redress.